Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Island Life Mix

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Whew! It’s been awhile hasn’t it? Been around the world and back… or at least around Georgia and back. Got back into Nashville in time to catch The End Men and The Slaughterhouse Chorus at fooBar last night. Word to the wise, if you get the chance to see either or both of these bands live, take it. It was so amazingly awesome to finally meet Matthew and Liv from The End Men in person. They definitely rocked the house. And yes this means I will have to tag The End Men… again… they are currently the second most tagged term on Ear to the Ground.

But, let’s get back to what we do best… or most… or something… Pre-shuffle featured: Secret County (which I couldn’t find represented on YouTube, NY Dolls, Jill Sobule and John Doe, Chad VanGaalen, Japandroids, The Grisly Hand, Phil Norman, Little and Ashley and Tim Lee 3.

Shuffle after jump:

“Howlin’ Down the Dark” by Ben de la Cour from Ghost Light (2012)

Louisiana based Ben de la Cour is one of our CXCW13 “discoveries”. We have his performance of “Tank Full of Gas” from CXCW in the YouTube Playlist down below.

“Just Say No (Sometimes)” by Young Hines from Give Me My Change (2012)

Nashville based singer-songwriter came to our attention recently, and we are digging his music. We grabbed this song and tons more on Readymade Records Sampler 2013. Readymade is Nashville-based indie label that have our attention.

“My Special One” and “Woman You’re Doing Right” by You and Me from You and Me (2013)

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=2434452328/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

Good and long-time friends of Ear to the Ground, Val and James (aka You and Me) recently released some of their great music on CD. You can order or download all of it using the Bandcamp gadget above. We close out our shuffle with a welcomed double shot of cool, folksy, bluesy Pop.

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – A Distant Ship Mix

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I don’t know how, but somehow January has gotten away from us. Welcome to February.

We have another jam-packed shuffle so – let’s do it… after le jump

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ONE:

Darling Underdog

Jill Sobule and John Doe

A Day at the Pass (2011)

Released for Record Store Day 2011. Indie Folk/Rock darling with X man John Doe. Exene wrote the lyrics for this song.

TWO:

When You Were Young (The Killers Cover)

Garrison Starr

Relive (Noisetrade Version) (2012)

Cover of the first single from The Killers 2006 album, Sam’s Town. Garrison first released a cover of this song on a free EP in 2012. We have it off a Sampler via Noisetrade.

THREE:

Comfortably Numb (Live)

Pink Floyd

Pulse (1995)

This Gilmour/Waters tune from The Wall (1979) – recorded live during The Division Bell tour. Vocals here are by David Gilmour and Richard Wright. I have become…

FOUR:

Bayou Tortous

James McMurtry

Just Us Kids (2008)

Opening track from McMurtry’s 2008Just Us Kids album.

FIVE:

On We March

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

The Social Network: Five Track Sampler (2010)

Track from the Oscar-winning composers.

SIX:

Can’t Talk To You

The Boilers

City Without a Subway (1986)

Awesome Nashville 80s Rock – from a 1986 benefit album fro 91.1 WRVU. The album cover featured a painting by Howard Finster.

(video for another Nashville 80s rock band – Guilt)

SEVEN:

Lonely Holiday

Rhett Miller

Live at Eddie’s Attic (2012)

Live acoustic version of a song from Miller’s old band’s fourth album. (Old 97s/Fight Songs (1999))

EIGHT:

TV in the Bedroom

TV Girl

The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle (2012)

San Diego Lo-Fi Indie Pop band – from their 2012 mixtape

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1638640886/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

NINE:

October

October (1981)

Spare and beautiful.

TEN:

Lifted

Nat Baldwin

People Changes (2011)

Part of Dirty Projectors – nice shattered pop music from a fractured age…

ELEVEN:

Trembling Hands

Explosions in the Sky

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011)

Nifty Alt-Rock instrumental from the Austin-based band.

TWELVE:

Hard to Build a Home

Marvin Etzioni

Marvin Country! (2012)

Classic “talking” style country sound as interpreted by the multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist.

Here’s another Marvin Country! track

THIRTEEN:

The Curse

Josh Ritter

So Runs the World Away (2010)

Nice way to close out the shuffle – this track from Josh Ritter’s sixth full-length album.

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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Ring True Mix

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Music from the morning….

Drivin’ N Cryin’ frontman Kevn Kinney released his classic solo debut, MacDougle Blues back in 1990. It features Kinney’s trademark raspy vocals on top of plaintive, folksy music. Gotta Get Out of Here is the first song in today’s shuffle.

Chris Nathan is a Nashville-based soulful singer songwriter. He has released a few EPs and albums, but the song we have today Never Needed Nothing is from a Demo. It’s a cool song.

We have a video of a different Chris Nathan song.

I have noticed an interesting phenomenon, whenever the shuffle includes a David Bowie song (particularly if it is a Ziggy Stardust cut), my page views experience a dramatic uptick. I guess there are a lot of Bowie fans out there. If you have reached my blog because of the mention of David Bowie – well welcome and please stick around and check out all of our great artists. I am not including a Bowie song in a crass attempted to garner page-views – the shuffle has a mind of it’s own, but I would never turn anyone away. Today, we have the demo version of Lady Stardust from one of the Ziggy reissues.

John Doe of X fame has had a long and celebrated solo career outside of the L.A. punk legends and their spin-off project the Knitters. Today’s song, The Golden State, is from his 2007 album A Year in the Wilderness and features Kathleen Edwards.

One of the most original and fun bands we’ve had the opportunity to feature this year is Nashville based Cheer Up Charlie Daniels. The song that first turned us on to them is the raucous rave-up called Bunsen Burner Baby Blues which can be found on the Live in ’79 record.

“Keep the beacon burnin’ ’cause it’s a blind blind world” from Beacon by Lone Justice from their second album Shelter. I have to admit, Beacon is not a song I was as familiar with as other Lone Justice songs, but listening to it this morning, I decided it was exactly what I need to hear.

Could not find a video for Beacon, so here is the title track to Shelter.

In my opinion, proof of the unfairness of the world can be found in the fact that Let’s Active did not achieve global domination. Again, just my take, but as I see it, Afoot and Cypress represent near pure pop perfection in the best possible way. I listened to the stunning Ring True this morning, and I find it difficult to explain how happy this song made me feel.

Irish rockers, U2 were a huge part of my musical development, and by the time of Rattle and Hum, I was beginning to lose interest as my tastes evolved and expanded. So when Achtung Baby was released in 1991, the opening salvo was like a swift kick. This stands as one of my favorite albums, I think, primarily for the joyful surprise it provided. I have to wonder if U2 has any more joyful surprises in their bag of tricks…. We have So Cruel in the shuffle today.

We close out our shuffle with the legendary Australian rock band, Hoodoo Gurus from their second album Mars Needs Guitars! with the lively and fun song, In the Wild.

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Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – Bobbin’ and Pretendin’ Mix

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So lot’s on my mind, but anyway, I had a great walk in accompanied by some cool music, and I wanted to share that music with you – because that is what I do:

The Morning gets under way with a recent Featured Artist from Knoxville Tennessee. It’s Tim Lee 3 with the song Long Way to the Ground from their 2010 double album Raucous Americanus.

It’s amazing and disturbing how often the next song seems incredibly timely. Politics sometimes bore me, but I feel like a hypocrite talking to some people and not speaking out against the madness I hear coming from their mouths and their keyboards….

Your Racist Friend is one of the many classic tracks on They Might Be Giant’s excellent third album – 1990s, Flood.

For the final two songs of today’s mix, the shuffle machine takes us to the American West with a pair of songs from LA artists who were pioneers in the punk and alt-rock/Americana movement.

Dave Alvin (ex-Blasters and ex-X) released West of the West in 2006 which was his tribute to California roots music. Included on the album was his cover of Merle Haggard’s 1985 song, Kern River. I swear I could listen to Dave Alvin’s amazing vocals all day long.

(Here’s Dave doing another River song)

(and here’s Merle’s version)

We close out the shuffle with Dave Alvin’s one-time bandmate, John Doe of X, with a track from his 1990 solo debut Meet John Doe with the achingly beautiful It’s Only Love.